Festival Orphans: Persevering in the Face of Adversity

More and more people are getting into building cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments. In turn, a growing number are also hitting various festivals, craft shows, and street fairs to try to sell their unique creations. 

And going out into the public to sell cigar box guitars always poses some exciting challenges for people who aren't used to it.

Putting yourself out there, talking to people, talking-up yourself and your work, bargaining and working a sale... for some more extroverted folk this is all second nature. 

But for people like me who are a bit more introverted, it can be a real challenge... and kind of frightening.

That's, however, not what this post is about. 

This post is about perseverance. 

It is about dealing with adversity. 

For the new vendor trying to peddle their wares in a booth somewhere, there are few adversities as daunting as what I have come to call:

The Festival Orphan

The festival orphan is a kid (sometimes they move in packs - ARGH!) who discovers your booth and proceeds to make it his or her home. 

The kid's parents either don't care where he is, or decide that you look like a great free babysitter, and are soon nowhere to be seen. 

The kid will proceed to paw over everything you have on display, usually strumming too hard, cranking on tuners, dropping things and not putting stuff back.

He or she will ask a bunch of questions, usually not waiting for answers. 

Almost always, all those questions lead up to the big one: "can I something for free?" 

Often the festival orphan will disappear and reappear multiple times in your booth, each time proceeding to re-paw over everything on display.

Be Patient

Keeping your patience and staying cheerful through this can be challenging. 

You are busy trying to deal with actual paying customers, and this kid won't go away. 

You may be tempted just to give him something so he will go away. 

While that might be very generous and good-hearted, it's a questionable business model.

Stick With It

Here's the thing though - you gotta persevere, stay polite, suck it up and deal with it. 

Unless the kid is being outright disruptive, you need to stick with him, because you never know what might come from it. 

While that kid might not have any purchasing power, his (currently missing) parents do. 

At the end of one long festival day, a very persistent festival orphan returned a final time, with Grandma in tow. 

And danged if she didn't whip out the credit card and bought him a cigar box guitar!

They're Genuinely Interested

More importantly, the root of these kids' presence in your booth is (almost always) a genuine interest in what you are selling. 

Kids tend to "get it" instinctively when it comes to making music, and making homemade instruments. 

Even if nothing gets bought, you have no way of knowing what that kid will take away from what he or she learns from you that day. 

It may turn into a sale later, it may not, but that isn't really what's important.

Conclusion

So if you run into your own festival orphan, be strong, keep that smile on, and persevere. 

Be prepared to rescue high-dollar guitars out of his sticky hands, stop him from breaking strings, and dropping stuff. 

It is worth the effort!

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